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3 Common (But Easy to Avoid) Mistakes Made By Community Theatres Selecting a Ticketing System

Are you a community theatre on the verge of acquiring a ticketing and box office system? If so, good for you! This is an important step in the life of a community theatre organization, and really helps to set your organization apart from the rest. Be careful though, as there are a few easy (but tempting) mistakes to be made. Read on to learn about three of these common mistakes, and how your community theatre can avoid them!

Don’t Skip Steps

We can’t stress this one enough. Once you’ve decided to purchase a ticketing and box office system, it is incredibly tempting to jump right into looking at available systems and the various features and functions that they offer. But how do you know which to look at if you don’t know what you’re looking for?

To find a system that provides a perfect fit for your community theatre, you must first determine what you need, ticketing options, and a pricing strategy. It’s much easier to narrow down the field of vendors once you have this decided on.

Save Your Money!

It used to be necessary to pay a lot for a ticketing and box office service, but (luckily) this is no longer true! As Louis Lamoureux has said in a previous article, “there is absolutely no reason why you should pay your ticketing software vendor more than you pay your set designer, choreographer, orchestra, performers or any other party involved in your production.”

Ideally, you should be able to find a ticketing system that charges less than one dollar per ticket. This is one of the many reasons we really like the TicketPeak system, but we’re a little biased! We’ve also created a list of 100 ticketing vendors to help you out with narrowing down the selection.

But Remember…NOTHING Is Free (Except Hugs!)

It is so easy to mistakenly think that a ticketing and box office system is “free” if the pricing model is such that the vendor charges your customers a service fee, rather than the theatre. As a community-based organization, your customers are the people that have nurtured and supported your organization, and you simply do not want to pass on these exorbitant service charges.

Has your community theatre recently obtained a ticketing box office system, or are you just in the process of finding one? We’d love to hear more about your experiences in the comments below.